One example of conventional ion diffusing apparatuses is described in a later-described comparative example 2 (see FIG. 36). A refrigerator having this ion diffusing apparatus 110a (see FIG. 35) is described in Patent Publications 1 and 2. This refrigerator 200 emits ions outside the refrigerator to sterilize the outer periphery of the refrigerator. By sterilizing suspended bacteria outside the refrigerator, sanitary living space is provided, and it is possible to prevent suspended bacteria from entering the refrigerator from outside when its door is opened/closed, and to provide sanitary inside environment of the refrigerator.
FIG. 37 shows ion concentrations of various portions in a room at 15° C. in temperature when cluster ions are discharged into the room from an outer-side ion blowout opening 22 of a refrigerator 200 having a conventional ion diffusing apparatus 110a. Herein, the sterilizing effect has been confirmed when the plus ion concentration is 2000 ions/cm3 or more and the minus ion concentration is 2000 ions/cm3 or more.
In FIG. 37, although there exist ions having high concentration around the outer-side ion blowout opening 22, its region is narrow and this is not always sufficient. For example, ion concentration at a position in front of the outer-side ion blowout opening 22 by 10 mm is about 100000 ions/cm3. Although sufficient ions are generated from the ion generating apparatus 14, ions of high concentration are retained in the vicinity of the blowout opening, and the ions are not dispersed over the entire room.
In order to achieve this problem, there is a method to increase the length of a blowout opening 15 in its widthwise direction and to sent out air current in a wide range.
A later-described comparative example 4 is taken as an example. In an ion diffusing apparatus 110c of the comparative example 4 (see FIG. 40), an enlarged pipe portion 13b extends from an ion generating apparatus 14 to a diffusing apparatus blowout opening 15. A cross-sectional area thereof is smoothly increased from the ion generating apparatus 14 toward the diffusing apparatus blowout opening 15. The enlarged pipe portion 13b is provided with a plurality of wind introducing plates 16 from a downstream portion immediately after the ion generating apparatus 14 to a slightly upstream portion of the diffusing apparatus blowout opening 15, and is divided into plurality of portions by the wind introducing plates 16. The ion generating apparatus 14 is disposed immediately upstream of the plurality of wind introducing plates 16, if a width of the electrical discharging surface 14a of the ion generating apparatus 14 in a direction perpendicular to a flow is defined as w1 and a width of the wind-blowing path 13 facing the electrical discharging surface 14a is defined as w2, a relation of w2=2×w1 is established. A center of the electrical discharging surface 14a of the ion generating apparatus 14 in a direction perpendicular to the flowing direction and a center of the wind-blowing path 13 facing the electrical discharging surface 14a coincide with each other.
Patent Publication 1: JP-A 2002-204622
Patent Publication 2: JP-A 2002-206163